About the Poster Art
The 25th anniversary First Night poster is Northampton at Night by Randall Deihl. It comes to us courtesy of R. Michelson Galleries. The poster graphics are by Alexis Neubert of Alexis Design Studio.
Randall Deihl is one of the valley's most acclaimed artists and perhaps the most prominent figure in what has become nationally known as the Northampton Realist School. His best known painting, Sweets, an interior of Northampton's Academy of Music, hangs in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other Deihl paintings of the area grace the walls of such major institutions as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, he lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, artist Nancy Hill, whose work also is exhibited at R. Michelson Galleries.
Northampton at Night was painted in 1993. It was the view from Randy's studio when he lived at the corner of Main and Masonic streets. This was what he saw when looking out the back window. It reminded him of the Flemish School and Vermeer's View of Delft. Of course, many will recognize the highest spires in the painting as those of Northampton's beloved St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, now scheduled to close on January 3, 2010.
Posters can be purchased for $5 at the Center for the Arts, the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, and TD Bank on Main Street.
